Part iv: Cookies for Oliver and Cass

Charity pauses for a minute while she's adding the flour to the cookies she's making. She's making chocolate-oatmeal-pecan-cranberry for the first day of school so that they will all have something sweet in their lunch-boxes. (Cass's mother only packs him stringy celery and sandwiches sans mayonnaise). When she stops and closes her eyes she can smell the pungent scent of the cardamon she's using in the cookies as it fills the room. It smells like the time she and Oliver and Cass were curled on the couch together in a lazy tangle of arms and legs, watching Amelie on the television set. Her face was pressed against the palm of Oliver's hand, and she could feel every line and crease. That was what Oliver had smelled like- cardamon and sawdust. He had said it was because his mother cooked with it a lot- not just in cookies and pastries like Charity, but in soups and sauces and chicken too. Now charity uses it all the time too, so that she will smell like Oliver. Cass thinks she is being very silly, but then, he has his own special scent, just like the air right after a storm has passed.

Part v: Oliver at School

Oliver does not do very well in school. Numbers and letters confuse him and make his stomach do flip-flops and butterflies. He does not get good marks on tests and projects and it takes all of Charity's effort to get him to turn in his homework. When he does, it is all folded and crumpled (and sometimes wet and muddy) and he usually only gets half the score. The only reason he still pays attention and does any of the work is so that he can make the grade and stay with Charity and Cass. Charity and Cass do not have any problems at school. Charity spends most of her time dreaming and drawing pictures of birds and flowers and crooked hearts in all the margins of her blue-lined notebooks, but she still pulls off full marks on tests and gets smiley faces and nice comments. Oliver asked Cass once how he managed to do so well in school, and he said that it was because there were two of him; Cass-at-home and Cass-at-school. Cass-at-home spent all his time thinking about clocks and gears and airplanes, and Cass-at-school concentrated and did what the teachers told him to.

Part vi: Ian all Alone

Ian sits in a corner, melting into shadows and light carelessly like some slinky jungle cat. Ian is alone -sitting there- but it is OK because he has been alone before, like in elementary school. In elementary school one day, while he was drinking his juice box and coloring in pictures of the sky with a red crayon (because it reminded him of pain) Oliver sat down beside him and asked if he could use the red crayon. Ian said 'no,' rather rudely because he was startled by Oliver's fast movements and big smile, and besides, it was his crayon, he'd brought it from home, and he liked it. Oliver would probably use it all up coloring something stupid like a fire truck or some strawberries. When Ian said no, Oliver's eyes got dark and wet and he yelled rather loudly that he didn't care anyway, it was just a dumb crayon and Ian was stupid and his nose was too big besides. Someone laughed at the wrong time, and then everyone was laughing except Ian, and they called him big-nose and witchy boy and they never stopped, not even for high school. If Ian were a real witch, the first thing he would do would be to put a curse on Oliver and never ever take it back, even if Charity asked him to.

Part vii: Ian and Evy Ian

isn't alone all the time. Sometimes Evy is there with him in the still light. Ian says that Evy is his girlfriend, and Evy never disagrees. She lives in black and white, an old-fashioned photograph girl dressed in faded lace and soft skirts. When she speaks, her tiny words get caught in the wind and drift into places where they shouldn't go, like into Ian's ears and star-cold mind. (He doesn't like to be disturbed). He says sharp hissy words then, and Evy takes care not to speak for a while; staring blankly into the bright concrete oblivion thinking pale thoughts that fade away like smoke on the wind. When she thinks that she is going to cry she scrunches up her face and curls her toes, remembering all the times that he's kissed her and placing them like a brick wall before the empty abyss of her insecurity.

Cass kissed her once. He listened to her startled birdy words solemnly and then reached on tiptoe to press gentle lips to the top of her forehead. Evy felt electric and gorgeous and IMPORTANT then, and she danced the day away. Evy doesn't ever dare dance in front of Ian.